


Don't Think It Means the Same to You

by twentyandtired



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, F/M, Jealousy, M/M, Modern AU, Pining Matt, Please read notes, oblivious Shiro, shallura is background, sorry Matt, written before age confirmation so this can be deleted
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-15
Updated: 2016-12-15
Packaged: 2018-09-08 16:55:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,110
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8852875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twentyandtired/pseuds/twentyandtired
Summary: Matt-centric story on how it takes them being apart for him to realize how much he actually wants them to be together.edit: ***written before age confirmation, i no longer ship sha//ura and can take this down/edit it out if requested***





	

**Author's Note:**

> I love Shatt, but I also love to suffer <333  
> not beta'd so plz point out anything that needs fixing/improvement  
> ty
> 
> edit: ***written before Allura was revealed to be a teenager, i do not condone sha//ura anymore, and will fix this when i can

Matt had always been told he was smart. Teachers, academic advisors, friends, family, they all chimed into the chorus of “You are so smart, Matt!” 

 

If only they could see him now.

 

The two of them had known each other for a significantly long time, even before their time at G. Garrison Academy. They were inseparable their last two years there, always pushing each other in school, extracurricular activities, sports, and volunteer work they did separately or together. They were the perfect duo and planned on continuing that even after the Academy. 

Then the unexpected happened, they were accepted into different programs for the Graduate Sector. Honestly, they should have seen it coming, Matt had always been ahead academically, so it made sense that they had placed him in the Kerberos Science Research Laboratory. His best friend hadn’t had much choice but to accept the offer into the new V.O.L.T.R.O.N Program that was being reinstated after what seemed like 10,000 years. 

Everything was so new to Matt and despite his acceptance into such a prestigious program, he felt isolated from everyone back home. He may as well have been in a different planet! The research he had been working on didn’t even make it past the first stages before the idea was mysteriously revealed by a rival lab known as Galra. Matt had come across them first hand after being in the wrong place at the wrong time and was sworn into secrecy by the Head of the Department. He reasoned that it wouldn’t be worth it to worry his family over something they had been so proud of, so he kept this hidden. 

Basically, the two years apart from the world he grew up in were awful, and he was seriously reconsidering his life choices. The only thing that made things somewhat bare able was getting to visit home pretty often and always calling and texting people from back home. On second thought, it only made things worse for him. Because he should have seen it coming.

Matt should have noticed the way all of the pictures he was sent showed the same new group of friends, the Paladins they called themselves. Matt should have known when one of his visits home, the majority of which were only poorly veiled excuses to see him again, was ruined when he was blown off to hang out with a new girl. Matt didn’t think much of her, but he could tell that it was only a matter of time until they got together. He didn’t come back home until two months later. 

 

By this point Matt has tried to move on, he really has. There’s the serious-but-actually-just-has-a-dark-sense-of-humor mathematician that lives a couple of doors over. Matt likes it when the two of them just hang out in his room and are able to get work done while also laughing at things that sometimes don’t make sense. 

Matt has also become close friends with his first year roommate, the space psychologist. Maybe it had to do with his field of study, but Matt knew it was just part of the guy’s nature to make everyone around him feel happy on a bad day. 

There had even been an incident with one of the girls in his research group, which is honestly just embarrassing to think about now. Let’s just say it took several of the girl’s friends accusing him of being a heartbreaker for him to realize that it wasn’t just a coincidence the two of them were always in the same lab room. They are still in the same group together, but she is still too embarrassed over the whole thing for them to go back to being friends. 

So maybe everything isn’t as bad as Matt has made it out to be in his head, but whatever hope he held of feeling like things can go back to normal is instantly shattered when he gets an excited text and has to congratulate the new couple. His friend sounds so happy, a new girlfriend, a new group of friends that he calls his brothers*, as well as a promising career as a Paladin. Matt is proud of his best friend, but it comes with an ache in his chest from knowing that it just proves the two of them will never be anything more. He doesn’t have any right to want more, he would just be a burden now that the mutual encouragement they had in the past proves have been Matt relying on him. 

Matt hates feeling like he’s been holding his friend back all this time, but he also hates his friend for being so caring and continuing to invite him over, for telling him he misses him, for saying he always looks forward to the next time he visits. Matt pushes through it though, because to do otherwise is not what best friends are for. 

 

Every person that ever called Matt smart should learn not to make such brash assumptions of people. Even an alien with minimum knowledge of human interactions would have seen this coming.

 

Instead, Matt has his hopes foolishly high when Winter Break comes around and he is invited to the Winter Festival. It all comes crashing down when he arrives and spots Shiro near the entrance with his arm around the girl he always talked about. The two are looking at the displays, wrapped up in each other and laughing at something. Matt knows the couple hasn’t spotted him yet, so he seriously considers turning around and heading back home to be with his family instead, Matt did ditch a movie night with Pidge after all. He is a weak man though, so he decides that he’d rather endure the pain of seeing Shiro with someone else in the hopes that it will finally kill each and every last butterfly in his stomach. 

Matt forces a smile and trudges forward, a dead man accepting his fate. Allura spots him first, and nudges Shiro with a soft smile on her face. In a blink, Matt is enveloped in a tight hug and all of those hibernating butterflies suddenly take flight at the arrival of the early sunny spring that is Shiro.

“I missed you.” The soft words are all it takes for Matt to feel simultaneously saved and condemned. Maybe this moment is all he will ever get, and he dreads them and cherishes them. He wraps his own arms around Shiro, squeezing his eyes shut to ignore the strange look he knows Allura is giving them. 

Matt should just be happy with what he has. 

“Me too.”

**Author's Note:**

> They call me rocket from how much I PROJECT onto characters.  
> Matt is literally me irl rn :/  
> I realize this can come across as really jealous and that is something I am trying to deal with but I want Matt to suffer with me so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


End file.
